[erickajm]

Originally Posted by C C Kent

Everyone who has experience......started with none, and not everyone has the opportunity to be mentored by "one of the greats". My first mentor wowed me with her knowledge, but it was a mile wide and six inches deep. I acted on her advice and wound up spending lots of time and money doing everything wrong. I was a faithful student with an unqualified mentor.

The advice I would give you is to start with one female, the best female that you can find. Research her lines and find the ancestors that you are most impressed with as representatives of the breed. Search other pedigrees to find these same ancestors bred to different mates that resulted in champion offspring. You will begin to see patterns within pedigrees that when matched properly resulted in many champion offspring. This will take a year or longer but you are raising and training your female so there's no hurry. While training your girl to show you will be rubbing elbows with people you can learn from, it's a win win. If you have a great girl and she is worthy of breeding you will be competing with people who just happen to own the stud dogs of the next generation.The whole objective is to learn how to produce quality, once your girl is bred for the first time you can choose from that breeding to hold your next girl back. Now you have two girls to work with and plan for. After a few years you will know which lines and more importantly which breeders you really want to buy from.

Respectful attention is intoxicating to someone with the heart of a teacher. Pay attention when an experienced breeder/handler is speaking.....and they'll keep speaking.....even when you are the only one listening.

Well put!